Minneapolis Protests & Riots During a Pandemic
Jul 08, 2020 7:30 AM
Matt Sepic, Minnesota Public Radio
Minneapolis Protests & Riots During a Pandemic

Matt Sepic covered the recent protests and rioting in Minneapolis. He will talk about his experience and how MPR plans to cover the criminal cases against the four officers and the efforts to replace or reform the MPD. He'll discuss the planned coverage of rebuilding efforts and the gaping racial inequities in Minnesota that are at the root of this crisis, and he'll touch on the pandemic-related economic pressure that MPR and other news organizations are facing while doing all of reporting. 

Matt Sepic has been a general assignment reporter at MPR News since 2010. In recent years he has produced a wide variety of stories including an in-depth look at an alleged anti-government militia leader charged with bombing a suburban Twin Cities mosque, the kidnapping and safe return of a Wisconsin teenager, and most recently, the unrest that followed the killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd. Matt and four of his colleagues won the University of Oregon’s 2019 Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism for coverage of MPR’s decision to cut ties with longtime host Garrison Keillor. Matt is a graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and has also worked at public radio stations in Ohio, Indiana, and St. Louis.